Obama cabinet is short on Southerners
December 15, 2008 at 5:34 pm by Scott Henry in NewsAfter the AP’s recent revelation that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was on the short list for a cabinet post she didn’t get, the Politico adds insult to injury by pointing out that Pres.-elect Obama hasn’t chosen any Southerners for prominent administration appointments. Unless, that is, you count the most thankless of White House gigs.
To be fair, the official voice of the White House will come with a Southern drawl: Robert Gibbs, Obama’s soon-to-be press secretary, is an Alabama native.
Why have no Southerners been selected? UGA’s Charles Bullock hazards a guess:
“Who comes to mind immediately?” asked Bullock. “No one, really.”
“The leading politicians in the South at least for the last generation have been active as Republicans,” Bullock added. “You just don’t have Democrats that come to mind as the go-to person or the expert. It highlights the thinness of the Democratic bench in the South… The skill set is so depleted.”
Sad, yet true. Who are his choices: former U.S. Rep. Ben “Cooter” Jones? Zell Miller?
That said, I’ve been told by an Obama semi-insider that things may have been different had Jim Martin upset Saxby Chambliss in the Senate race. The thinking is that a Sen. Martin would’ve had the opportunity to suggest some candidates for administration jobs. But he didn’t win and Georgia remains, if not fire-engine red, at least a sickly shade of magenta.
As for Short-List Shirley, I likewise have it on fairly good authority that Franklin was not as tight with the Obama folks as many media types (including me) previously thought. In fact, she dodged early opportunities to get on the Obama bandwagon, waiting instead until his nomination seemed a mathematical certainty. So, if she were to be hired by the incoming administration, it would be because of factors other than political payback.
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